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Vikings Host Delaware

Vikings Host Delaware
Posted: Feb 17, 2006

Feb. 17, 2006

Contact: Brian McCann

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GAME 25
Delaware (8-17) at Cleveland State (9-15)
Date: Saturday, February 18, 2006
Time: 5:30 p.m. EST
Site: Goodman Arena (8,500), The Wolstein Center, Cleveland, Ohio
Sponsor: Rascal House (E. 21st & Euclid)
TV: None. Live video available online through CSTV at CSUVikings.com
Radio: WKNR, 850 AM (Al Pawlowski & Jason Gibbs)
Series: First Meeting

SETTING THE SCENE: Cleveland State takes its final break from the Horizon League schedule when the Vikings host Delaware on Saturday, Feb. 18 beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the Wolstein Center in a matchup created from the BracketBusters, presented by ebay, pool. The Vikings (9-15) are fresh off a 63-56 win at Wright State on Wednesday night that snapped a six-game losing streak. Delaware, a member of the Colonial Athletic Association, has won back-to-back games over Drexel (75-68) and at William & Mary (57-52 in OT) to improve to 8-17.

PREVIEWING CLEVELAND STATE: After using the same starting lineup for nine straight games, Mike Garland has shaken things up a bit, using four different lineups in the last five games in attempt to find the right combination of players to get CSU back on track. Purdue transfer Ije Nwankwo (12.0 ppg, 5.3 rpg) has averaged 14.1 points over the last 10 games to take over the scoring lead. Junior guard Raheem Moss (10.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg) and freshman forward J'Nathan Bullock (10.2, 4.0) have provided steady scoring while junior Carlos English (8.1 ppg, 4.7 apg) has given the Vikings steady play at point guard. Veterans Patrick Tatham (8.1 ppg, 6.0 rpg), Frashon McGee (4.8, 5.2) and Victor Morris (6.3, 2.7 apg) have proven to be the backbone of the squad, each averaging more than 20 minutes a game. The unusual depth of the Vikings -- CSU plays as many as 12 players every game -- allows Garland to run his high-intensity schemes while giving him additional substitutions for most situations.

SOME HOME COURT EDGE: The homecourt advantage doesn't seem to apply this year in Horizon League play if the Vikings are one of the two teams involved in a game. In the 14 league games involving CSU, the home team has gone just 5-9 with CSU winning four of its eight games on the road and dropping five of the six at home. In the league games that haven't involved CSU, the home team is 37-15, and the Vikings are the only Horizon League team to have a losing home record (5-8).

ALUMNI GAME SET FOR FEB. 25: Alumni from the first 74 seasons of basketball at Cleveland State and Fenn College will play an Alumni Basketball game on the Wolstein Center court prior to the Feb. 25 regular season finale against UW-Green Bay. The alumni game will tip-off at 3:00 p.m. that day and last for about an hour. Fans wishing to watch the game can enter the Wolstein Center through Gate A that day.

ANOTHER STATE BITES THE DUST: Saturday's meeting with Delaware will be CSU's first-ever game against a team from the state of Delaware, the 39th different state that the Vikings have played at least one contest against. Still left on the list are games against teams from Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Maine, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, Washington and Wyoming.

VIKINGS ARE PERFECT AGAINST COLONIAL TEAMS: Cleveland State will put on the line against Delaware a perfect 7-0 record against teams currently in the Colonial Athletic Association. The Vikings have played just three of the 12 current members, owning a 3-0 record against Towson State and 2-0 marks vs. both George Mason and Virginia Commonwealth, though the most recent of the seven contests came during the 1987-88 season when CSU upended VCU, 83-76 in a game played in Public Hall.

CSU IN THE BRACKETBUSTERS POOL: Saturday's game marks the third straight year that CSU will be playing a BracketBusters pool game and the second time that the game will be played at home. The Vikings hosted Eastern Michigan in 2004 and played at Central Michigan last year. This year's event includes 100 teams from 18 different conferences playing games over three days.

NWANKWO HAS AN IMPACT AT THE LINE: Junior center Ije Nwankwo has been one of of the big reasons why the Vikings have begun to have an edge at the foul line. In the 16 games since becoming eligible, Nwankwo has made 60 of his 84 free throw attempts (.714). He has gone to the line at least four times in a game 12 times, including 10 free throw attempts against both Akron and Loyola and nine at UW-Green Bay.

. . . ESPECIALLY DOWN THE STRETCH: Ije Nwankwo's free throw shooting has been especially effective late in the game as the junior has made all 17 of his free throw attempts in the final five minutes and overtime of games. That is a stern contrast to the rest of the Vikings, who are shooting just .630 during that time, making 58 of 92 free throws.

. . . AND THE VIKINGS ACCURACY IS GETTING MUCH BETTER: Free throw shooting wasn't one of the Viking strengths during the early part of the season. In fact, in the first 14 games, CSU was just 28-for-55 (.509) from the stripe in the final five minutes and overtime of games. The Vikings have turned that performance around, making 47 of their 54 free throws (.870) over the last 10 games to raise their season shooting to .688 (75-109).

MAKING THE GRADE: The Vikings turned in one of their best performances in the classroom in recent memory during the just completed fall semester. The 17 players on the roster combined to post a 2.82 GPA for the semester with Vikings Robert Clark, Steve Kallman, Cory Rojeck and Greg Vlosich each earning a spot on the Dean's List with Clark overcoming knee surgery during the week before finals to record a perfect 4.0 GPA.

MORRIS CLOSES IN ON 2,000 MINUTES: Junior guard Victor Morris enters Saturday's game needing just 72 minutes played to become just the 30th player in school history to play 2,000 career minutes. Morris has totalled 1,928 minutes in the 77 games that he has played in, starting 40 times.

PETTY THEFT: The emphasis on defense is illustrated well by the steal totals of the Vikings players. Not only is CSU leading the league averaging 8.3 steals a game, but four CSU players are averaging at least one steal a game. Carlos English leads the way with a league high 45 steals. Patrick Tatham has 27, Raheem Moss 26 and J'Nathan Bullock 24. A fifth Viking -- Frashon McGee -- is just off the one steal a game pace, having 21 steals in 23 games.

ANOTHER LINEUP SHUFFLE: After using the same starting group in a personal high nine straight games, Mike Garland has used four different lineups in the last five games, giving CSU 10 different starting lineups in 24 games this year. The season started with the Vikings employing a different starting unit in each of the first six games. Things settled down after that as Garland used two different groups over the next 14 games before shaking things up last week. Garland went back to the lineup for the UW-Milwaukee game that he used for most of the league schedule nine games (Carlos English and Raheem Moss at guard, J'Nathan Bullock and Patrick Tatham at forward and Ije Nwankwo at center) but an illness to Raheem Moss forced another change at Wright State this week.

NWANKWO SETTLES IN: It took junior center Ije Nwankwo a couple of games to get settled, but his play of late has ignited the Vikings at both ends of the court. Over the last 10 games, Nwankwo has averaged 14.1 points and 6.3 rebounds, shooting .505 from the field (46-91) and .710 from the line (49-69).

. . . AND RANKING IJE: Junior Ije Nwankwo will not qualify for the Horizon League statistical rankings this year because, by missing eight games early in the year, he will not be able to play in the required 75 percent of CSU's games. Nwankwo, who has played in 16 of the 24 games (66.7 percent), would currently rank eighth in blocks (0.8), 12th in rebounding (5.3), 14th in both field goal (.462) and free throw percentage (.714) and 15th in scoring (12.0).

THE BABY BULL-OCK: Freshman forward J'Nathan Bullock is living up to the expectations that has made him one of the top newcomers on the team this year. Bullock is third on the team in scoring (10.2), posting double-figure scoring efforts 13 times this year. Although he has started 18 games, he has had some of his best efforts off the bench. He matched his career high with 21 points at Detroit on Feb. 2, going seven-for-11 from the field and seven-for-10 from the line. He came back on Feb. 4 at Loyola to make seven of his nine field goals en route to a 17 point game. Earlier this year, he led CSU with 15 points, six rebounds and three steals at North Carolina (Nov. 22). As a starter, he originally set his career high with 21 points at Kent State on Dec. 3 and later posted a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds against Utah Valley State on Dec. 20.

THE PROOF IS IN THE MINUTES: The depth of the Vikings this year is evident in the playing rotation. CSU currently has 10 players averaging 8.6 minutes or more a game with all except Ije Nwankwo -- who was not eligible for the first seven games -- having seen action in at least all but three games this year. Victor Morris (24.8 mpg) and Frashon McGee (21.2), who have been used mostly off the bench this season, are two of the seven players averaging more than 20 minutes a game.

GOING OVERTIME: After not playing an overtime game during the first two seasons under head coach Mike Garland, the Vikings have played two this year, winning both. The most recent came against Detroit on Jan. 12 when CSU rallied from 12 points down in the second half. The Dec. 20 win over Utah Valley State was similar as the Vikings trailed by 13 with 12:11 left. The overtime periods have been a different story as CSU has trailed for just 17 seconds in the two wins. Cleveland State is now 36-30 all-time in games extended to overtime, including 22-14 in home games.

NEXT UP: The Vikings close the regular season with home games next week against UIC (Thursday, Feb. 22) and UW-Green Bay (Saturday, Feb. 25).